Frances  J.  Baker 


First  Women  Physicians 
to  the  Orient 


R 692  . B3 
Baker,  Frances  J. 

First  women  physicians  to 
the  Orient 


irst  Women  Physicians 

TO  THE  0R1ENT 

/ 

By  FRANCES  J.  BAKER 


PRICE,  TEN  CENTS 


Published  by 

Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church 

36  Bromfield  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 


FIRST  WOMEN  PHYSICIANS 
TO  THE  ORIENT. 


By  Frances  J.  Baker. 


Mrs.  Sarah  F.  Hale,  editor  of  Godey's  Lady's  Book , as  early 
as  1851  used  the  power  and  prestige  of  her  position  to  urge 
the  necessity  of  sending  young  women,  qualified  , 
I as  physicians,  to  minister  to  suffering  women  in 

Beginnings.  heathen  lands.  Not  more  than  two  years  had 
passed  since  the  degree  of  M.  D.  had  been 
conferred  for  the  first  time  on  a woman  in  this  land,  Miss 
Elizabeth  Blackwell.  The  first  Indian  woman  in  this  country 
to  obtain  the  degree  of  M.  D.,  in  1889,  was  Miss  Susan  La 
Flesche.  The  first  colored  woman  was  Miss  Georgia  Patton 
(Mrs.  Washington),  born  a slave,  and  graduated  from  the 
Meharry  Medical  College  in  1893.  Miss  Petra  B.  Toral,  M.  D., 

! is  the  first  Mexican  missionary  physician.  She  was  graduated 
from  the  Laura  Memorial  Medical  Missionary  College  of 
Cincinnati  in  1902,  and  is  now  working  in  Leon,  Mexico.  The 
Woman’s  Medical  College  of  Pennsylvania  was  the  first  college 
in  the  world  regularly  organized  for  the  education  of  women 
for  the  medical  profession,  and  was  incorporated  March  11, 
1850.  In  1875  the  new  college  building  was  dedicated,  the 
first  in  the  world  built  expressly  for  the  education  of  women  in 
medicine.  From  this  college  many  women  have  gone  to  the 
mission  field. 


6 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


INDIA. 

The  Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  has  the  honor  of  inaugurating  woman’s  medi- 
cal missionary  work,  by  sending  Miss  Clara  A. 

First  Woman  Swain,  M.  D.,  to  India,  in  i860.  She  was 
Medical  v 

Missionary.  graduated  from  the  Woman’s  Medical  College, 

of  Pennsylvania,  and  sailed  November  3,  the 
same  year,  reaching  Bareilly  January  2,  1870,  where  she  com- 
menced practice  the  following  morning.  The  need  for  a hos- 
pital soon  became  urgent,  and  the  only  eligible  site  was  some 
property  adjoining  the  mission  premises,  owned  by  a Moham- 
medan, an  opposer  of  Christianity’,  who  lived  some  forty  miles 
away.  Ur.  Swain,  with  four  other  missionaries,  decided  to 
appeal  to  him,  when,  to  their  embarassment,  he  said,  “ Take  it, 
take  it,”  giving  outright  an  estate  of  forty-two  acres,  with  a 
large  brick  house,  two  fine  old  wells,  trees,  and  a garden,  worth 
at  least  $ 1 5,000. 

January  1,  1874,  a new  hospital  was  completed,  the  first  for 
Oriental  women,  whose  cost,  including  the  remodelling  of  the 
house  for  a home  and  dispensary,  was  about 
S 10,000.  The  work  grew,  making  such  de- 
mands on  the  doctor's  strength  that  she  was 
obliged  to  come  home  in  her  seventh  year  and 
remain  two  years.  On  her  return  she  continued  in  the  work 
until  March,  1885,  when  she  received  a call  to  Khetri,  Rajpu- 
tana,  to  treat  the  wife  of  the  Rajah  as  a physician  in  the 
palace.  She  was  allowed  to  take  a nurse,  a cook,  and  any 
other  servants  needed,  regardless  of  expense.  There  were 
seven  persons  besides  the  escort.  At  the  railroad  terminus 
transportation  was  provided  by  a chariot  and  four  camels,  two 
palanquins  carried  by  seventeen  men  each,  two  riding  horses, 
and,  a few  miles  out,  two  elephants.  There  was  also  a I'ath, 
drawn  by  two  white  oxen,  and  there  were  likewise  sent  over 


First 

Hospital  and 
Dispensary. 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


7 


two  hundred  men  servants.  The  people  of  Rajputana,  the 
Rajputs,  were  very  proud,  bigoted,  religious  Hindus,  who 
would  not  allow  a missionary  to  preach  on  their  streets  or  in 
the  bazaars,  but  Dr.  Swain  was  accorded  much  liberty.  She 
distributed  religious  books  and  portions  of  the  Bible,  taught 
Christian  hymns  which  were  sung  in  the  palace,  and  opened  a 
dispensary  and  a school  for  girls.  In  1895  Dr.  Swain  resigned 
and  came  home  to  Castile,  N.  Y.,  having  given  twenty-seven 
years’  service  to  India. 

Since  the  beginning  of  medical  missionary 
Methodists  work  among  women,  the  Methodist  Woman’s 
Medical  Work.  Foreign  Missionary  Society  has  sent  out  fifty- 
five  physicians,  twenty-two  of  whom  are  in 
active  service.  In  its  thirty  hospitals  and  dispensaries,  the 
number  of  patients  treated  during  the  year  1902  was  153,365. 

The  first  woman’s  medical  class  of  India,  or  of  Asia  either, 
was  opened  May  1,  1869,  in  Nynee  Tal,  under  the  supervision 
of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Humphrey,  of  the  Methodist 

First  Woman  s Mission.  At  the  close  of  the  season,  four 

Medical  . 

Class_  women  were  examined  on  their  two  years 

course  of  study,  before  a board  of  physicians, 
one  of  them  Inspector  General  of  Hospitals  for  the  North- 
west Provinces,'  and  were  given  certificates'.  Their  history 
shows  that  they  all  came  to  occupy  responsible  positions. 

Miss  Sara  C.  Seward,  M.  D.,  was  the  first  woman  physician 
sent  out  by'  the  Presbyterian  Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary 
Society.  She  went  in  1871  to  Allahabad,  India. 

Presbyterian  she  was  the  n;ece  0f  Secretary  of  State  Seward 

Pioneer 

Work.  and  sister  of  the  Consul  General,  George  F. 

Seward — -later  our  Minister  to  Peking  — for 
whom  she  kept  house  for  several  years.  She  returned  from 
China  and  was  graduated  from  the  Woman’s  Medical  College 
of  Pennsylvania  in  1871.  She  reached  her  appointment  in 


SARA  SEWARI)  HOSPITAL,  ALLAHABAD,  INDIA.  BUILT  iSgi. 
By  courtesy  of  Woman's  Work  for  Woman, 


First  l / 'omen  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


9 


December,  and  confined  her  practice  at  first  to  zenanas.  The 
following  March  she  opened  a small  dispensary,  and  later  built 
a new  and  larger  one.  Miss  Symes,  an  English  woman  born  in 
India,  and  a graduate  in  London  of  a special  medical  depart- 
ment, became  associated  with  Dr.  Seward;  also  a Miss 
Christian,  who  received  her  medical  training  in  India.  Dr. 
Seward  died  at  her  post,  of  cholera,  in  1891.  In  1893,  or 
about  that  time,  the  beautiful  “Sara  Seward  Hospital”  was 
completed,  as  a fitting  memorial.  During  the  year  1901  the 
physicians  in  charge  treated  26,525  patients. 


CHILDREN’S  HOSPITAL,  MIRAJ,  INDIA. 
By  courtesy  of  Woman's  Work  for  Woman. 


The  Presbyterian  Woman's  Board  employs  (1904)  thirty- 
eight  women  physicians,  and  maintains  sixteen  hospitals 
exclusively  for  women,  besides  forty-four  well- 
equipped  dispensaries,  some  of  them  equal  to 
a small  hospital.  Their  leper  hospital  at 
Ambala,  India,  is  the  only  instance  known  to 
us  of  lepers  under  the  continuous  medical  care  of  women.  At 
Miraj,  India,  they  have  a hospital  distinctly  for  little  children. 

Miss  Sarah  F.  Norris,  M.  D.,  of  New  Hampshire,  was  the 
first  woman  physician  under  the  Woman’s  Board  of  Missions 


Presbyterian 
Hospitals  and 
Dispensaries. 


IO 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


of  the  Congregational  Church.  She  sailed  for  Bombay  in  1873, 

and  carried  the  key  that  opened  zenana  doors  through  which 

a missionary  not  a physician  had  entered  but 

Congregational  once  ;n  fifteen  years.  The  Zenana  Mission  of 
Woman  s 

Board.  an  English  society  had  prepared  the  way  so 

that  she  was  welcome  in  the  homes  of  the 
people,  rich  or  poor,  high  caste  or  low  caste,  Hindus,  Moham- 
medans or  Parsis.  She  gained  their  confidence,  and  in  less 
than  three  months  made  out  four  hundred  prescriptions.  Ten 
thousand  were  treated  annually  at  her  dispensary,  and  more 
than  fifteen  thousand  received  religious  instruction.  When 
she  left  in  1881,  they  parted  from  her  sorrowfully  and  begged 
her  speedily  to  return.  The  Woman’s  Board  of  the  Congre- 
gational Church  supports  ten  medical  missionaries  and  four 
trained  nurses  and  assistants.  It  has  also  an  itinerating  medi- 
cal band  and  three  hospitals  and  dispensaries. 

The  first  woman  physician  sent  out  by  the  Baptists  of 
America  was  Miss  Ellen  E.  Mitchell,  M.  D.  When  she  was 
thirty  years  old  she  became  an  army  nurse  in 
the  Civil  War  and  served  three  years.  After 
teaching  a few  years,  she  entered  the  Women’s 
Medical  College  in  New  York,  and  graduated  in 
1871.  She  practiced  medicine  for  some  years  in  Fond  du  Lac, 
Wis.,  and  in  1879,  at  the  age  of  fifty  years,  was  appointed  a 
missionary  to  Moulmain,  Burma.  In  1888  she  returned  and 
took  post-graduate  work  in  the  Medical  Missionary  Institute, 
New  York.  She  again  sailed  for  Burma,  October  9,  1890,  and 
remained  continuously  at  her  post  in  Moulmain  until  her  death, 
April  4,  1901,  after  twenty-two  years  of  faithful,  untiring  work. 
Much  of  the  time  she  returned  her  salary  to  the  treasury  and 
depended  upon  her  own  resources.  She  was  lovingly  called 
“ the  little  doctor,”  for  she  had  greatly  endeared  herself  to  her 
associates,  and  was  considered  an  unostentatious  but  marvel- 


Work  of 

American 

Baptists. 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


lous  worker.  She  used  her  medical  knowledge  as  an  assistance 
in  her  missionary  work,  and  by  her  kindly  skill  recommended 
the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  to  multitudes  in  Burma,  as  she 
went  about  doing  good.  She  had  planned  to  come  home  to  be 
with  her  friends  after  her  working  days  were  over,  but  she 
worked  until  it  was  too  late,  and  died  in  Burma.  The  Woman’s 
Baptist  Foreign  Missionary  Society  has  fourteen  women  phy- 
sicians in  six  of  its  mission  fields,  and  has  sent  out  in  all  twenty 
women  physicians. 

Miss  Fannie  Jane  Butler,  M.  D.,  has  the  distinction  of  being 
the  first  fully  equipped  woman  physician  sent  from  England  to 
the  Orient.  She  was  appointed  to  India  in 
Church  1880  by  the  Church  of  England  Zenana  Mis- 

England.  sionary  Society,  and  first  labored  in  Jabalpur, 

then  in  Bhagalpur,  where  she  had  charge  of 
two  dispensaries  and  saw  several  thousand  patients  annually. 
In  1S87,  after  a short  furlough  at  home,  she  was  Appointed  to 
Kashmir,  a pioneer  among  the  women  in  that  lovely  valley. 
The  first  year  five  thousand  patients  attended  her  dispensary. 
Such  was  her  character  and  that  of  her  work  that  the  native 
government  consented  to  allow  missionaries  to  live  in  Sringar, 
the  chief  city,  where  she  secured  the  ground  for  dispensary, 
hospital,  and  home.  She  was  emphatically  a medical  mission- 
ary, and  though  she  dressed  wounds,  dispensed  medicines,  and 
performed  surgical  operations,  she  also  read,  prayed,  and  talked 
to  the  suffering  ones,  and  directed  their  sin-sick  souls  to  the 
Great  Physician. 

Mrs!  Isabella  Bird  Bishop  visited  her  in  her  isolated  home, 
and  rendered  financial  aid  in  the  building  of  a hospital.  She 
has  most  graphically  written  of  the  stress  that 
Heroic  was  upon  the  doctor,  even  just  before  her 

Service.  death,  when  women  pressed  upon  her  at  the 

dispensary  door,  overpowering  the  men  sta- 


1 2 First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 

tioned  outside  and  in,  and  were  precipitated  bodily  into  the 
consulting  room.  Mrs.  Bishop  believes  that  the  work  amid 
such  surroundings  of  vile  odors  and  insufferable  heat,  was  done 
at  the  expense  of  her  life,  which  went  out  on  the  earthly  side 
October  26,  1889. 


HOSPITAL  FOR  WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN,  NELLORE. 

From  Christian  Missions  ami  Soc;nl  Progress. 

Miss  Ida  Faye,  M.  D.,(Mrs.  Levering),  was  appointed  by  the 
Baptist  Missionary  LInion  to  Nellore,  India,  after  her  gradua- 
tion at  the  Pennsylvania  Woman’s  Medical 
Baptist  College  in  1881.  During  the  first  two  years 

Union.  she  had  no  place  where  she  could  receive 

patients,  and  rented  a dispensary  with  a few 
rooms  until  1886,  when  a new  dispensary  was  opened.  In 
February,  1897,  there  was  erected  the  new  and  attractive 
hospital,  which  has  an  operating  room,  supplied  with  two 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars’  worth  of  instruments,  and  a capacity 
for  twenty  beds.  From  forty  to  fifty  patients  come  to  the  dis- 
pensary every  morning,  some  often  on  foot,  from  a distance  of 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


13 


forty  to  sixty  miles.  Dr.  Faye  also  attempted  some  outside 
practice,  but  found  a limit  to  her  strength,  with  failing  health. 
She  came  home,  and  in  1900  pursued  some  post-graduate  work 
in  New  York  before  returning  in  the  fall  of  that  year,  to  the 
great  joy  of  the  Telugus,  among  whom  she  worked.  The 
hospital  was  planned  during  the  Baptist  Centennial  Year,  and 
had  the  enthusiastic  support  of  Dr.  Clough,  Dr.  Downie,  and 
other  missionaries.  Dr.  Downie  superintended  the  building, 
which  is  no  small  task  in  a country  where  native  workmen  are 
apt  to  be  both  dilatory  and  dishonest.  It  is  the  only  woman’s 
hospital  within  the  bounds  of  the  Woman’s  Baptist  Foreign 
Missionary  Society. 

Mrs.  S.  Satthianadhan,  of  Madras,  was  the  first  woman  in 
India  to  enter  a medical  school,  having  been  graduated  in  a 

zenana  mission  school.  “ It  is  difficult  for  us 

First  Woman  {<-,  realjze  ” savs  Dr.  Dennis,  from  whose 
Medical  Student 
of  India.  account  we 

glean  this 
information,  “ what  it  cost 
this  brave  young  girl  to  face 
the  prejudice  of  Indian  so- 
cietv,  and  begin  a course 
of  medical  study  in  the 
Madras  Medical  College,  the 
first  in  India  to  open  its 
doors  to  women.”  She  at- 
tained eminence  as  a novel- 
ist, and  described  in  one  of 
her  novels  herreception  when 
she  first  entered  the  lecture 
hall.  Her  appearance  was 
the  signal  for  enthusiastic 
assembled  students,  who  rose  to  their  feet  and  cheered 


§ r m 


MRS.  S.  SATTHIANADHAN. 
From  C'/tr.  Missions  and  Social  Pi  ogress. 

welcome  on  the  part  of  the 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


her  for  her  courage  and  independence  in  joining  their  ranks. 
Her  unassuming  and  gentle  demeanor,  as  well  as  her  remark- 
able scholarship,  won  for  her  the  respect  and  admiration 
of  both  teachers  and  students.  She  was  obliged  on  account 
of  her  health  to  give  up  her  chosen  profession  without  her 
degree,  and  was  married  in  1S83.  Her  death  occurred  in 
1894,  at  the  age  of  thirty-two  years.  As  a fitting  memorial  of 
her  life,  a scholarship  for  women  has  been  instituted  in  the 
Madras  College,  and  also  a medal  in  the  Madras  University, 
to  be  awarded  to  the  girl  who  passes  the  best  matriculation 
examination  in  English.  Both  these  tributes  were  gifts  from 
friends. 

The  first  Hindu  woman  to  receive  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Medicine  in  any  country  was  Mrs.  Anandabai  Joshee,  M.  D., 


adequate  medical  aid  to  her  countrywomen.  Her  husband 
was  postmaster  at  Serampore,  and  offered  no  objection.  From 
this  place  where,  some  seventy  years  before,  the  first  American 
woman  missionary  — Harriet  Newell,  a young  girl  bride  of 
eighteen  years  — arrived  in  1812,  this  first  Indian  woman  to 
leave  her  country  — she,  too,  a young  girl  of  eighteen  years  — 
departed  to  America  to  study  medicine.  Before  she  left,  a 
great  public  meeting  was  held,  attended  by  both  Europeans 
and  natives,  to  whom  she  explained  her  reason  for  wishing  to 
undertake  what  she  was  about  to  do,  and  affirmed  her  deter- 
mination to  remain  true  to  her  religion. 

March  1 1 , 1 886,  she  was  graduated  from  the  Woman’s 
Medical  College  of  Pennsylvania.  Prof.  Rachel  L.  Bodley, 
A.  M.,  M.  D.,  dean  of  the  school,  invited  Pundita  Ramabai, 
then  in  London,  to  attend  the  commencement  exercises.  She 


First  Hindu 

Woman 

Physician. 


a high  caste  Brahman,  born  in  Poona  in  1865. 
She  was  married  at  the  age  of  nine,  and  became 
a mother  four  years  later.  Her  child  died,  and 
she  decided  to  devote  her  life  to  bringing 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


15 


received  a letter  from  Windsor  Castle,  written  by  the  Queen’s 
private  secretary,  at  her  command,  thanking  her  for  having 
sent  Her  Majesty  the  account  of  Dr.  Joshee’s 
Queen  reception  in  the  College,  and  assuring  her  that 

Recognition.  the  Queen  had  read  the  paper  with  much 
interest  — a significant  recognition  by  the 
Empress  of  India.  In  June,  1886,  Dr.  Joshee  was  appointed 
to  the  position  of  physician  in  charge  of  the  female  wards  of 
the  Albert  Edward  Hospital  in  the  city  of  Kolhapur,  but  before 
she  had  entered  upon  the  work  her  death  occurred,  February 
26,  1887,  the  cause  being  tubercular  disease  of  the  lungs, 
which  began  to  develop  during  her  stay  in  this  country. 


CHINA. 

The  Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  also  pioneered  medical  work  among  the 
women  of  China,  sending  out  Miss  Lucinda  L. 
Pioneer*81  Coombs,  M.  D.,  (Mrs.  Strittmater),  in  May, 
Medical  Work.  [873.  Miss  Coombs  was  an  orphan  and  de- 
pendent upon  her  own  resources,  but  by  energy, 
industry,  tact,  and  unswerving  faith  in  God,  she  prepared  her- 
self by  a seminary  course,  and  then  entered  the  Woman’s 
Medical  College  of  Pennsylvania,  from  which  she  graduated. 
Dr.  Coombs  soon  saw  the  necessity  of  a hospital  to  separate 
the  patients  from  their  homes  ; the  Society  appropriated  the 
sum  necessary,  and  in  November,  1875,  two  years  after  her 
arrival,  she  opened  the  first  hospital  for  women  in  China.  In 
the  midst  of  the  building  she  acquired  such  proficiency  in  the 
language  that  at  an  early  day  she  was  able  to  dispense  with  an 
interpreter.  She  visited  patients  in  their  homes  beside  heathen 
shrines,  and  sitting  near  their  senseless  idols  tried  to  heal  the 
body  with  a heart  longing  for  their  soul  healing.  Her  minis- 


1 6 First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 

trations  were  attended  by  marked  success  in  winning  the  hearts 
of  Chinese  women.  After  five  years  she  was  married,  and 
removed  to  Kiu  Kiang  in  Central  China,  then  later  to  this 
country.  It  is  interesting  to  note,  in  connection  with  the 
Methodist  medical  work,  that  Dr.  Hii  King  Eng,  (Pennsyl- 
vania Woman’s  Medical  College,  1894),  now  in  charge  of  the 
Woolston  Memorial  Hospital,  Foochow,  China,  was  the  first 


FOOCHOW  HOSPITAL  FOR  WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN. 


girl  within  the  Foochow  Conference  to  have  her  feet  unbound. 
Dr.  Meigii  Shie  (Mary  Stone,  Michigan  University,  1 S96),  in 
charge  of  the  Danforth  Memorial  Hospital,  Kiu  Kiang;  China, 
was  the  first  girl  in  all  Central  China  brought  up  by  her  own 
parents  with  natural  feet. 

To  the  Woman’s  Baptist  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the 
West  belongs  the  honor  of  sending  out  the  first  regularly 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


’7 


Baptist 
Beginnings 
in  China. 


appointed  and  equipped  medical  worker  of  the 
American  Baptist  Missionary  Union,  Miss 
Caroline  H.  Daniels,  M.  D.,  of  Michigan, 
who  went  to  Swatow,  China,  in  1879.  She 
had  previously  graduated  from  the  medical  department  of 
Wooster  University,  Cleveland,  Ohio.  Dr.  Daniels,  on  reach- 
ing her  field,  went  to  work  with  a will,  and  happily  succeeded 
in  laying  good  foundations;  then  in  1884  failing  health  com- 
pelled her  return.  She  has  been  active  in  the  work  at  home, 
encouraging  and  inspiring  others  by  her  zeal. 

The  first  appointee  to  China  of  the  Congregational  Woman’s 
Board  was  Miss  Mary  Ann  Holbrook,  M.  D.,  in  1881.  She 
was  a graduate  of  Mount  Holyoke  Seminary, 

Congregational  ancj  Q£  qle  Medical  Department  of  Michigan 
Womans 

Board.  University.  Her  destination  was  Tung-cho, 

where  she  spent  five  years,  establishing  a dis- 
pensary and  doing  other  work.  In  1887,  on  account  of  failing 
health,  she  returned  home,  and  two  years  later  was  transferred 
to  Japan.  Again,  in  1896,  she  came  to  San  Francisco,  and  in 
1901  was  re-appointed  and  entered  upon  the  work  of  teaching 
in  Kobe,  Japan. 

The  Woman’s  Board  of  the  Interior  (Congregational)  also 
sent,  in  1881,  Miss  Virginia  C.  Murdock,  M.D., 
to  Kalgan,  a peculiarly  isolated  position  on  the 
borders  of  Mongolia,  where  she  has  a dispen- 
sary, desirably  located  in  the  centre  of  the  city. 
She  is  known  as  a “ downright  Christian  worker,”  and  her 
dispensary  has  proven  far-reaching  for  good. 

Miss  Mary  Frost  Niles,  M.  I).,  Canton,  China,  is  the  first 
woman  physician  sent  to  China,  in  1882,  by  the  Woman’s 
Dr  Niles  of  the  ^'ore'gn  Missionary  Society  of  the  Presbyterian 
Presbyterian  Church.  Twenty  years  later,  Miss  Ellen  C. 
Woman  s Parsons,  while  on  a visit  among  Presbyterian 

Board-  & ' . 

Missions,  spent  some  time  in  Canton.  Having 


Woman’s 
Board  of  the 
Interior. 


is 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient, 


Dr.  Niles  as  her  escort  in  her  search  for  government  philan- 
thropic institutions  in  the  heart  of  that  great,  throbbing,  amaz- 
ing city,  she  writes:  “ Proud  I was  of  my  countrywoman  as  I 
saw  how  every  street  knew  her,  how  every'  door  opened  before 


DAVID  GREGG  HOSPITAL. 

By  courtesy  of  Woman's  Work  for  Woman. 


her,  and  how  approachable  she  was  to  everybody.  Coolie, 
scholar,  and  mumbling  old  granny  alike  desired  speech  with 
her.  Here  people  came  to  show  their  sores,  there  they  begged 
her  to  stayr  and  talk  the  Bible.”  Dr.  Niles  is  a busy  woman, 
and  as  happy  as  can  be  in  her  work,  visiting  in  homes,  receiv- 
ing office  calls  and  lady  visitors,  itinerating  in  the  country, 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


l9 


superintending  the  school  for  blind  girls,  responsible  for  the 
support  of  more  than  half  of  the  girls,  for  the  wages  of  a 
Christian  teacher,  and  for  house  rent,  superintending  Sunday 
schools  and  conducting  teachers’  meetings,  besides  giving 
instruction  to  the  medical  students  under  Dr.  Mary  Fulton, 
who  has  opened  the  first  medical  college  for  women  in  China. 
In  the  dispensaries  she  reports  1,550  new  patients,  2,056  return 
visits  and  202  minor  operations. 

Miss  Elizabeth  Reifsnyder,  M.  D.,  after  graduating  at  the 
Woman’s  Medical  College  in  Philadelphia,  was  sent  to  Shang- 

...  , hai  in  1885  by  the  Woman’s  Union  Missionary 

Woman  s J J J 

Union  Society.  The  following  year,  through  the 

Missionary  munificence  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Williamson  of 

New  York,  land  was  purchased,  a hospital 
built  and  furnished,  and  the  salary  of  a physician  and  nurse 
provided  for  for  seven  years,  at  an  expense  of  #35,000.  The 
hospital  bears  her  name,  and  Dr.  Reifsnyder  was  put  in  charge, 
where  she  still  remains  (1904).  She  has  won  for  herself  a wide 
reputation  as  a surgeon,  her  skill  being  a great  boon  to  her 
patients.  During  these  years  she  has  received  over  200,000 
individual  patients,  many  of  whom  have  returned  for  repeated 
treatments.  The  hospital  is  called  one  of  the  greatest  evan- 
gelizing agencies  in  that  Chinese  city. 

Kying  Yiio  Me,  M.  D.,  is  the  first  native  woman  physician 
of  China.  She  was  early  orphaned  and  became  the  ward  of 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  McCartee  of  the  Presbyterian 
Kying  Yuo  Board  at  N ingpo,  who  gave  her  every  oppor- 

Me,  M.  D.  tunity  for  a thorough  education  in  this  country. 

She  graduated  at  the  head  of  her  class  from 
the  Woman’s  Medical  College  of  the  New  York  Infirmary,  in 
1885.  Next  in  rank  was  a Jewess,  and  third  was  a daughter  of 
missionaries  in  India,  but,  as  Dr.  McCartee  used  to  say,  “ Asia 
led  that  class  ! ” After  some  months  in  hospital  work  in  New 
York,  and  post-graduate  study  in  Philadelphia,  she  joined  her 


20 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


friends,  the  McCartees,  in  Washington,  where  Dr.  McCartee 
was  for  two  years  foreign  secretary  to  the  Japanese  legation.  Dr. 
Kying  continued  her  studies  at  the  Army  Museum  and  Smith- 
sonian Institute,  becoming  an  expert  in  micro-photography,  then 
first  introduced  into  this  country  for  pathological  and  biological 


INTERIOR  MARGARET  WILLIAMSON  HOSPITAL. 

f 

From  Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progn  ss. 


uses.  So  brilliant  was  her  work  that  she  was  elected  an 
honorary  member  of  the  Washington  Microscopical  Society. 
Several  physicians,  microscopists  of  Washington,  in  1887  pro- 
nounced her  photomicrographs  so  beautiful  and  so  vastly 
superior  to  anything  that  had  been  done  in  that  line,  that  the 
editor  of  the  Medical  Index  requested  permission  to  substitute 
one  of  her  micrographs  for  an  illustration  already  begun  bv  the 
engraver  for  the  article  on  Micography. 


First  J I 'omen  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


21 


Dr.  McCartee  gave  her  instruction  in  music,  Latin  and 

botany,  and  before  her  return  to  China,  in  1887,  she  had 

acquired  a working  knowledge  of  French  and 

First  Chinese  German.  In  the  fall  of  1887  she  went  to 
Woman 

Physician.  Amoy  for  work  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Dutch  Reform  Mission  Board,  it  being  con- 
trary to  the  rules  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  to  send  natives  to 
their  own  land.  She  was  eminently  successful  in  charge  of  a 
hospital,  and  had  a large  paying  practice  outside  among  all 
classes,  from  Admiral  and  Tao  Tars  down,  but  in  May,  1889, 
having  no  assistant  and  being  overworked,  she  was  ill  with 
fever.  Dr.  McCartee  had  her  come  to  them  in  Japan.  There 
she  gave  five  years  to  medical  work  under  the  Methodist 
Church  South,  in  Kobe.  In  November,  1893,  she  married 
a Protestant  Portuguese,  Sig.  Ecada  de  Silva,  and  again 
came  to  America,  where  they  took  up  their  residence  in  San 
Francisco. 


KOREA. 

In  1S86,  the  Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  sent  to  Korea  Miss  Annie  Ellers,  a 
trained  nurse  and  much  beyond  that,  but  she 
Presbyterian  had  no  medical  degree.  A woman’s  depart- 

Beginnings.  ment  was  added  to  the  hospital  in  Saoul,  and 

Miss  Ellers  took  charge  of  it.  She  was  also 
made  physician  to  Her  Majesty  the  Queen.  In  July,  1887, 
she  married  Rev.  D.  A.  Bunker  and  resigned  from  the  hospital 
work,  expecting  it  to  include  all  medical  work.  The  Queen 
would  not  permit  this,  so  for  nine  years  (seven  and  a half  with 
Dr.  Horton)  she  was  called  to  the  palace  when  the  Queen  was 
ill,  the  last  time  being  just  two  weeks  previous  to  the  brutal 
murder  ot  the  Queen  in  1895. 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


The  first  woman  physician  to  Korea  was  Miss  Metta 
Howard,  M.  D.,  of  Michigan,  a graduate  of  the  Woman's 
Medical  College  of  Chicago.  She  was  sent  to 
Woman  Seoul,  the  capital,  by  the  Woman’s  Foreign 

Physician.  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  in  1SS7.  During  the  first  ten  months 


PO  GOO  XI JO  GOAN  HOSPITAL,  KOREA. 


she  treated  1,137  dispensary  cases.  In  1S89  she  opened  the 
first  hospital  for  women  in  Korea.  When  the  King  heard  of 
it  he  showed  his  approval  by  sending  a name  — “ Po  Goo 
Nijo  Goan”  (home  for  many  sick  women).  It  was  framed  and 
painted  in  the  royal  colors,  all  ready  to  be  hung  over  the  great 
gate.  Dr.  HowarcTmet  with  favor  among  the  people,  visiting 
professionally  in  the  homes  of  officials  and  men  of  rank.  In 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient . 


2 3 


less  than  two  years  she  treated  3,000  patients.  Early  in  1890 
she  was  obliged,  on  account  of  serious  illness,  to  return  home, 
and  after  a few  years  she  entered  upon  her  profession  in 
Albion,  Mich,  Miss  Margaret  J.  Edmonds,  a trained  nurse  of 
the  Methodist  Society,  opened  in  Seoul,  in  1903,  a training 
school  for  nurses,  the  first  of  its  kind  in  Korea. 

1 In  1888  the  Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  sent  Miss  Lillias  S.  Horton,  M.  D.,  of  Chi- 
p.  cago,  as  their  first  woman  physician  to  Korea. 

Presbyterian  She  was  delicate  in  health,  weighing  about 

Missionary  ninety-five  pounds,  but  her  fondness  for  study, 

especially  the  sciences,  led  her  to  enter  the 
Young  Ladies’  Seminary  at  Albany,  and  later  the  Woman’s 
Medical  College,  Chicago,  where,  after  giving  nine  months  as 
interne  physician  in  the  Woman’s  Hospital,  she  received  her 
degree.  She  also  nursed  three  months  in  Cook  County  Hos- 
pital, Chicago,  and  received  a special  certificate  of  honor  from 
the  faculty  of  the  Medical  College.  She  reached  Seoul  in 
March,  1888,  in  time  to  take  the  work  of  Miss  Ellers,  who  had 
married,  and,  in  March,  1889,  she  was  herself  married  to  Rev. 
H.  G.  LTnderwood,  D.  D.,  but  continues  her  profession.  She 
is  very  efficient,  and  has  done  a prodigious  amount  of  hospital 
and  itinerating  work,  besides  caring  for  patients  in  her  own 
home. 

When  Korea  was  yet  a “Hermit  Nation,”  there  was  born,  in 

1S76,  a little  girl  now  known  as  Mrs.  Esther  Kim  Pak,  M.  D., 

the  first  Korean  woman  physician.  She  was  a 

Esther  pupil  in  the  first  girls’  school  which  was  opened 

Kim  Pak,  r . 

M jy  in  Seoul,  and  was  converted  in  her  own  room. 

The  following  day  she  told  the  other  girls  of 

this  new  experience,  and  invited  them  to  her  room  that  evening 

for  a prayer  meeting,  which  was  the  origin  of  women’s  prayer 

meetings  in  Korea. 


24 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


At  the  age  of  fourteen,  because  of  her  proficiency  in  English, 
she  was  chosen  to  act  as  interpreter  for  Dr.  Rosetta  Sherwood, 
on  her  arrival,  who  in  turn  taught  her  physi- 
ology, and  later  materia  medica , the  putting  up 
of  drugs,  and  how  to  care  for  the  sick.  In 
1891  she  was  baptized,  and  received  the  name 
Esther.  Her  family  was  very  anxious  for  her  marriage,  and  in 
order  to  save  her  from  a heathen  husband  her  missionary 
friends  chose  a Mr.  Pak,  a Christian  young 
man,  and  they  were  married  by  the  Christian 
ceremony.  The  following  year  they  went  to 
Pyeng  Yang,  one  hundred  and  eighty  miles 
distant,  where  Esther  helped  Mrs.  Dr.  Sher- 
wood Hall  in  opening  Christian  work  among 
the  women  and  children  of  that  wicked  city. 

In  1895,  Esther  and  her  husband  accom- 
panied Dr.  Hall  to  America,  and  Esther  esthkr  kimpak. 
attended  the  public  school  at  Liberty,  N.  Y., 
and  in  1896  entered  the  Woman’s  Medical  College  of 
Baltimore,  where  she  received  her  degree,  and  returned  to 
Korea  in  1900.  During  the  first  ten  months  after  she  reached 
Pyeng  Yang,  of  the  2,414  cases  in  dispensary  and  out-calls, 
more  than  half  were  treated  by  Dr.  Pak.  She  is  a fully 
accredited  worker  of  the  Methodist  Woman’s  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society. 

ON  THE  BORDERS  OF  TIBET. 

The  sweet  influence  of  this  work  of  love  has  not  been  allowed 
to  touch  the  women  of  Tibet,  but  Miss  Martha  Sheldon,  M.D., 
the  first  missionary  in  Bhot,  has  several  times 
Attempt  to  entered  that  land,  in  1896  penetrating  further 

Enter  Tibet.  than  any  missionary  had  gone  before.  On 

reaching  the  summit  of  the  pass,  she  found 

> ° 

shrines  to  the  gods,  and  some  of  her  men  added  a stone  and 


First  Korean 

Woman 

Physician. 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


spoke  the  names  of  their  gods,  but  with  the  native  Christians 
she  shouted  “ Yesu  Misah  Kijaij!"  (Victory  to  Jesus!)  thrice 
repeated,  thrilling  two  continents  with  her  confident  trumpet 
call  from  the  “roof  of  the  world.”  August  8,  1895,  Dr. 
Sheldon  finished  translating  the  Lord’s  Prayer  into  Bhotiyan. 
Since  then  her  work  of  translating  the  gospels  and  the  hymns 
of  the  Methodist  hymnal  will  give  her  historic  prominence  in 
the  development  of  that  region.  Sunday  schools  have  been 
organized,  mass  temperance  meetings  are  held,  when  she 
invites  her  Nepaulese  neighbors.  An  Ep worth  League  has 
been  formed,  self-support  established,  and  medical  practice 
introduced.  The  Bhotiyas  treat  with  the  Tibetans,  and 
through  them,  if  in  no  other  way,  the  gospel  will  enter  Tibet. 

THE  TURKISH  EMPIRE. 

Miss  Grace  N.  Kimball  was  a missionary  under  the  Congre- 
gational Woman’s  Board,  from  1882  until  1886,  in  Van, 
Turkey,  one  thousand  miles  west  of  Constanti- 
Dr.  Grace  nople.  She  returned  to  this  country,  and  in 
Kimball.  1892  graduated  from  the  Woman’s  Medical 

College,  New  York  Infirmary,  and  went  back 
to  Van,  soon  to  face  Armenia’s  national  tragedy.  She  was 
made  superintendent  of  the  Armenian  Industrial  Relief  Bureau, 
her  work  and  the  need  enlisting  the  financial  support  of  the 
Christian  Herald.  Within  twenty-four  hours  after  receiving 
money  from  that  source,  she  had  hired  a bakery  and  all  things 
necessary,  and  had  nine  hundred  pounds  of  dough  ready  for 
baking.  The  work  grew  until  more  than  seven  hundred  were 
daily  supplied  with  bread.  Over  nine  hundred  persons  were 
employed  in  relief  work,  including  the  supply  of  wool  and  other 
material  to  the  spinners,  weavers,  carders,  etc.  In  addition. 
I)r.  Kimball  rendered  the  service  usual  to  the  medical  mission- 
ary, but  she  was  disappointed  in  not  obtaining  government 


26 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


Dr.  Mary 

Pierson 

Eddy. 


sanction  to  practice  medicine,  although  United  States  Minister 
Terrell  labored  three  years  in  a vain  effort  to  get  her  diploma 
vized  by  the  Sultan.  Thus,  while  she  was  the  first  physician 
to  undertake  to  secure  the  liberty  of  practicing  in  Turkey,  its 
accomplishment  was  soon  to  be  accorded  to  another.  She 
returned  to  this  country,  and  is  physician  in  Yassar  College) 
besides  having  an  office  in  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y. 

Miss  Mary  Pierson  Eddy,  born  in  Syria  of  missionary 
parentage,  is  the  first  woman  physician  to  her  native  land, 
appointed  by  the  Woman’s  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  She 
is  also  the  first  woman  recognized  as  a medical 
graduate  by  the  Turkish  Government,  the  first- 
woman  to  receive  a permit  to  practice  medicine  in  the  Turkish 
Empire.  When  this  result  was  achieved,  the  newspapers  of 
Germany,  Austria,  France  and  England  recorded  the  result. 

On  the  request  of  Dr.  Gracey,  Dr.  Eddy  sent  him  for  publi- 
cation in  the  Missionary  Review , in  1894,  an  enumeration  of 
the  several  steps  taken,  a summary  of  which 

Struggle  for  reveals  that  her  six  diplomas  in  pharmacy, 
Government 

Recognition.  medicine,  surgery,  opthalmology,  etc.,  were 
presented  to  the  Sultan  ; the  Imperial  Council 
of  State  authorized  the  repeal  of  the  Turkish  law  forbidding 
women  to  practice  medicine  in  the  Empire  ; and  by  degrees  all 
duly  qualified  women  are  to  enjoy  the  same  rights  upon  the 
terms  hitherto  allowed  men  only.  Her  diplomas  having  been 
returned,  she  presented  them  to  the  Imperial  Council  of  Medi- 
cine and  was  granted  a colloquial  examination.  After  taking 
the  required  oath  to  serve  the  subjects  of  the  Empire  without 
distinction,  and  of  loyalty  to  His  Imperial  Majesty,  Abdul 
Hamid  II,  a permit  was  received  allowing  her  perfect  freedom 
to  practice  anywhere  in  the  empire,  and  everything  was 
attended  to  in  just  exactly  one  year  after  her  arrival  in  Con- 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


stantinople.  Congratulations  were  received  from  everywhere. 
She.  a Protestant,  is  the  only  woman  who  carries  a firman  from 
the  Sultan  of  Turkey,  the  head  of  the  Mohammedan  Church. 
It  enables  her  to  call  upon  the  officials  and  the  military  author- 
ities for  any  assistance  or  supplies  that  she  may  need.  It 
entitles  her  to  military  escort  whenever  she  desires,  and  in 
various  directions  gives  her  an  importance  that  no  other 
missionary  possesses. 

THE  SIAMESE  PENINSULA. 

Miss  Mary  M.  Bowman,  M.  D.,  is  the  only  woman  physician 
who  has  ever  gone  to  the  Siamese  peninsula.  After  much  hesi- 
tation the  venture  was  made  by  the  Woman’s 
Physician  to  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  Presbyterian 
Missionaries.  Church  of  sending  Dr.  Bowman  to  Laos,  in 
1895,  as  a physician  to  her  fellow  missionaries. 
She  had  graduated  in  1890  from  the  training  school  for  nurses 
at  Battle  Creek,  Mich.,  and  then  spent  a year  in  sanitarium 
work  in  California,  after  which  she  entered  Cooper  Medical 
College,  San  Francisco,  receiving  her  degree  in  1894.  She  at 
once  entered  upon  the  duties  of  house  physician  in  the  St. 
Helena  Sanitarium,  from  which  place  she  received  her  appoint- 
ment to  Laos.  Her  special  training  as  a nurse,  physician,  and 
teacher  of  classes  in  massage,  cooking,  emergency  cases,  rudi- 
ments of  surgery,  and  simple  remedies,  fitted  her  for  training 
the  natives  in  just  these  things.  What  a boon  she  has  been  to 
the  ladies  of  the  mission,  saving  more  than  one  from  coming  to 
America!  There  were  no  other  physicians  for  several  daysT 
journey  in  either  direction,  and  there  were  times  when  she  felt 
as  if  she  had  the  responsibility  of  all  the  people  of  the  world 
on  her  shoulders.  In  June,  1899,  she  was  married  to  Rev. 
Robert  Irwin,  but  continued  her  medical  work.  Owing  to 
extra  pressure  of  special  cases,  she  herself  broke  down  in  1902,. 
and  started  for  America  for  a time. 


2 8 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


AFRICA. 

The  pioneer  woman  physician  of  the  Woman's  Baptist 
Foreign  Missionary  Society  to  Africa  was  Miss  Lulu  C. 
Woman’s  Fleming,  M.  D.,  in  1S95.  She  graduated  from 

Baptist  Foreign  Shaw  University,  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  in  1 88 5 , and 
Missionary  was  appointed  a missionary  ot  the  American 
Society.  Baptist  Missionary  Union,  in  18S7,  going  to 

Palabala  station  of  the  Congo  mission,  where  she  remained 
three  years,  returning  to  America  in  1S91,  Miss  Fleming 
pursued  a medical  course,  and  was  sent  as  a medical  missionary 
on  her  return  to  the  field,  when  she  was  stationed  at  Irebu,  on 
the  Upper  Congo.  Her  labors  were  useful,  and  she  had 
gained  the  approbation  of  all  her  missionary  associates,  but  in 
1899  she  came  home  with  broken  health  and  died  in  the 
Samaritan  Hospital,  Philadelphia,  June  20,  1899. 


JAPAN. 

Miss  Sarah  K.  Cummings,  M.  D.,  of  Indiana,  after  graduat- 
ing from  a Homoeopathic  college,  entered  the  Woman’s  Medi- 
cal College,  Chicago,  and  graduated  in  1883. 
Presbyterian  She  was  appointed  by  the  Woman’s  Foreign 
Work-  Missionary  Society  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 

to  Kanazawa,  Japan,  in  the  fall  of  1883.  Find- 
ing that  the  practice  of  her  profession  would  arouse  enmity  on 
the  part  of  the  Japanese  physicians,  who  are  well  educated  and 
equipped,  she  soon  devoted  her  energies  chiefly  to  other  forms 
of  mission  service,  but  by  the  education  of  Miss  Hishikawa  in 
medicine,  and  in  various  other  unobtrusive  ways,  she  still  made 
her  knowledge  very  useful.  She  was  married  in  1884,  to  Rev. 
James  B.  Porter,  of  the  same  mission. 

In  1883,  the  Methodist  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Soci- 
ety sent  Miss  Florence  N.  Hamisfar,  M.  D.,  of  Kansas,  to 


First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 


-9 


Japan.  She  returned  in  i<S86.  At  Akita,  on 

Work  of  Other  tjle  northwest  coast  of  the  main  land,  the 

Womens 

Boards.  Foreign  Christian  Missionary  Society  has  medi- 

cal work  conducted  by  Dr.  Nina  A.  Stevens, 
who  seems  to  be  the  only  woman  physician,  among  the  foreign 
missionaries,  at  present  in  charge  of  a dispensary  in  Japan. 

Mrs.  Kei  Okami,  a Japanese  woman,  graduated  from  the 
Pennsylvania  Woman’s  Medical  College  in  1888.  The  follow- 
ing year  she  found  abundant  opportunity  in  her 
Dr.  Kei  native  land  to  practice  her  profession.  She 

Okami.  took  charge  of  the  department  for  women’s 

diseases  in  one  of  the  largest  hospitals  in  Japan, 
where  she  instructed  the  nurses  in  anatomy,  and  taught  physi- 
ology and  chemistry  in  branch  Schools,  besides  having 
patients  in  her  own  home.  She  wrote  back  to  her  American 
friends,  earnestly  asking  for  prayer  that  her  work  might  be 
blessed.  Prior  to  1873  there  were  no  trained  nurses  in  the 
Occident  or  the  Orient.  This  special  work  was  commenced  in 
Kyoto,  Japan,  in  1887,  and  a hospital  and  training  school  con- 
stitute a branch  of  the  Doshisha  University,  with  an  American 
woman  at  the  head  of  the  training  school. 

PERSIA. 

Miss  Mary  E.  Bradford,  M.  D.,  of  Illinois,  is  the  first  woman 
physician  to  Persia,  and  is  stationed  at  Tabriz.  She  was 
graduated  from  the  Illinois  Wesleyan  University  in  1879,  then 
from  the  Woman’s  Medical  College  in  Chicago,  after  which 
she  spent  some  time  in  the  New  England  Hospital.  She  was 
sent  out  by  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  1888,  and  is  still  at  her  post  (1904). 
Her  record  has  been  remarkable,  and  she  may  safely  take  rank 
among  the  heroines  of  missions,  especially  for  her  \york  in 
cholera  relief  during  the  epidemic  of  1892.  All  Europeans 


3°  First  Women  Physicians  to  the  Orient. 

fled  from  the  city  ; hotels,  banks  and  telegraph  offices  were 
closed  : but  the  American  lady  doctor  remained  at  her  post, 
winning  golden  opinions  as  well  as  gratitude  from  the  stricken 
ones,  although  she  modestly  says : “ I only  did  my  duty  and 

what  came  to  my  hand.” 

IN  THE  PHILIPPINES. 

The  first  woman  physician  to  the  Philippines  was  Miss 
Annie  Norton,  M.  D.,  who  graduated  in  1898  from  the  Laura 
Memorial  College  connected  with  the  Presby- 
• Filipino  terian  Hospital  in  Cincinnati.  She  was  sent 

Work-  out  by  the  Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Soci- 

ety of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  reach- 
ing Manila  February  26,  1900.  About  eight  months  later 
another  woman  physician  arrived,  and  together  they  opened  a 
dispensary  in  the  city's  most  crowded  quarters,  demonstrating 
what  could  be  done  with  proper  equipment.  Soon  after,  she 
went  to  a different  part  of  the  city,  and  had  her  hands  full 
caring  for  cholera  patients,  ministering  to  the  suffering  ones 
night  and  day,  until  her  strength  gave  out,  and  she  was  taken 
with  dengue  fever,  A fellow  missionary  testifies  to  her  care- 
fulness as  a physician,  her  tenderness  in  the  sick  room,  and 
her  faithful  gospel  teaching.  A Tagalog  gospel  and  tract,  sold 
by  Dr.  Norton,  were  the  means  of  starting  Protestant  meetings 
in  another  province.  Hearing  of  the  Protestant  missionary 
thirty  miles  away,  the  little  group  sent  for  him.  He  came  and 
organized  a church,  with  sixty-three  members,  baptized  six, 
had  a wedding,  and  received  the  names  of  sixty-nine  in  another 
town  who  wanted  to  become  members. 

SUMMARY. 

The  latest  statistical  summary  of  women  physicians  to  the 
Orient,  as  prepared  by  Dr.  Dennis  in  1900,  totals  421,  of 
whom  114  are  from  the  United  States,  47  from  England,  and 
23  from  Scotland. 


DATE  DUE 


JOfTT-S 

S"  . 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U.S.  A. 

BW7005.6  .B16 

First  women  physicians  to  the  Orient 


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